Enjoyable watch, but not lifechanging

If you're looking for a sweet heart tugging drama with a medium level of angst, then this one might be the one for you. Ding Yuxi is one of my favourite actors after watching several of his dramas and he def lives up to his acting skills in Love You Seven Times (LYST).

STORY:
I feel like the story was relatively well written, good pacing and each tribulation had its own story that added to the overall Heaven Realm plot which I liked. I grew to love the characters more with each tribulation they went through and enjoyed the angst as it was a small amount and didn't drag on like 10 episodes like other dramas do. A good story can balance the happy and the pain, and I feel like LYST did the job. The only downfall I feel in the story was that the pacing of how they took down the bad guy wasn't spaced out correctly, and could have been way more satisfying but the other aspects of the story did great.

ACTING:
Ding Yuxi is phenomenal in this series, every time he cries I feel a gut retching pain inside my chest and I feel all his emotions. In their second tribulation when he cries over Xiangyun his eyes are so bloodshot and it really moved me. As for the female lead, Yang Chaoyue, I feel like she definitely still gives off rookie vibes. especially in the first half of the drama. I agree her acting needs some work but I feel like Ding Yuxi carried a lot of scenes so it balanced it out. However I feel like she played Cang Hai way better than Xiangyun, and her chemistry with Ding Yuxi during the 30,000 past arc was ON FIRE and I really enjoyed her character there. Maybe because I feel like Cang Hai's personality fits her real personality more so it looked very genuine. Shout out to the guy who played Zihui because my drama tingling bones are telling me his gonna be really popular soon.

MUSIC:
A few of the soundtrack songs were amazing and gave me chills, but the OST they played during the scenes where Chu Kong summons the (bull?) I feel like didnt fit and sometimes when he uses his power I feel like the song is too modern. Otherwise it was still good!

OVERALL:
I enjoy a well written drama with decent chemistry so I feel like this one I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall I would give it a 8.5/10, which is pretty good considering I'm pretty picky with my dramas. Can't wait to see more of Ding Yuxi's work in the future!

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A cinematic masterpiece with only one flaw

My Journey to You (MJTY) is dark story yet is able to find use of comedic relief to balance out its harder themes. Honourable mention to the very well choreographed fight scenes because they are simply *chefs kiss*. So much detail was put into this drama, and the production level was like watching a movie and not a long drama. If you like a happy ending, I would suggest stopping at 42:30 of the last episode and not finish the last few minutes.

Story:
The story is very well paced and thought out, and I'm constantly trying to figure out who is a Wufeng spy and who isn't. I really enjoy dramas where I feel like the story can outsmart me as a viewer, and MJTY was no exception. Every time someone was assassinated, the story was able to make the viewers guess and give them time to try to figure it out, but always added a good amount of twists to the murderers. I really enjoyed the stories of all the side characters, and the support cast played each character so well. The only flaw I found was that they ended the drama on an open note, possibly to encourage season 2 but seeing how big the cast is and the popularity of Esther and Linghe rising it's gonna be virtually impossible to see another season for years to come.

Acting:
The entire cast for this drama was phenomenal. Can we talk about how all the actors learned their martial arts scenes?! The fight scenes were so beautifully executed and I could see there was a minimal use of stunt doubles because the director is so adamant about creating masterpieces. Even down to Young Master Xue who is literally a kid, executed their characters perfectly. The chemistry of the second couple, Shangguan Qian and Gong Shangjue was insane; I could literally feel sparks fly off the screen. Although I felt like the main couple lacked chemistry together, both Esther and Zhang Linghe did a great job at playing their characters. The main comedic relief of the entire drama, Gong Zishang, was SO funny I literally could not stop laughing every time she was on screen.

Music:
I love my period dramas, and although this drama outshone in everything else, I did feel like the music was a bit lackluster. The music did not give me goosebumps or do much to enhance the scenes like in other dramas I've watched. However the background music score for the fight scenes did a good job at creating the atmosphere. I'm just disappointed there isn't any good OST songs for me to listen to after I finish watching.

Rewatch:
I will 100% be rewatching this because I want to pick up all the details again. The fight scenes were insanely good and I need to see it again.

Overall:
I really enjoyed this drama, and I think its becoming one of my favourites of 2023 after Hidden Love. I really loved Love Between Fairy and Devil last year and started this thinking it would be a great twist cuz now Esther is with the second lead, but I totally fell in love with the entire cast and was rooting for the entire Gong family to win. I also felt like the action scenes were so well done as if it came out of an animation, so it must have taken the actors so much effort to do those scenes and I'm so proud of all of them. I will definitely be following everyone's projects from now on!

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